An insurgent warlord had labeled Prince Harry a 'drunken jackal' out to kill innocent Afghans just days after he started his deployment as part of NATO-led operation 'Enduring Freedom' in the war torn country. Although there was no reason to take seriously the comments of the warlord at that time but the recent 'insensitive and arrogant' comments made by the young prince that drew parallels between killing insurgents and playing video games, has not only angered the Taliban but various rights activists and war experts.

“This is a serious war, a historic war, resistance for us, for our people,” a Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, told Agence France-Presse in response, “and now this prince comes and compares this war with his games, PlayStation or whatever he calls it.” He added, “We don’t take his comments very seriously, as we have all seen and heard that many foreign soldiers, occupiers who come to Afghanistan, develop some kind of mental problems on their way out.”

What seems to have angered various activists is the Prince’s comment “Take a life to save a life. If there’s people trying to do bad stuff to our guys, then we’ll take them out of the game,” while referring to killing Taliban insurgents.

The royal had made these comments in an interview given to UK’s Channel 4 while he was stationed at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province last year. The clips of the interview were broadcasted Monday immediately after the Britain’s Ministry of Defense announced that Prince Harry had left Afghanistan, ending his four-month deployment there.

Pertinent to mention the immediate pretext for bombarding Afghanistan in 2001 was Taliban’s refusal to handover Osama Bin Laden to the US, but it has been eleven years since and Laden is also dead – killed in a military operation in Pakistan – the war continues taking a massive toll on civilians. And even though all foreign are expected to withdraw by 2014 much of the country is still controlled by Taliban.

Thousands of civilians have so far died in aerial bombings, counter insurgency operations, IED blasts and suicide bombing carried out by Taliban insurgents. But for Taliban, fighting against the NATO forces is like fighting the foreign invasion and occupation, and the statement of the royal in which he compared killing the insurgents to playing video games like Playstation and Xbox was due to anger them.

Also, it seems quite hypocritical of the UK press as none of the newspapers has come out with a scathing criticism of the royal for his juvenile remarks in which he even said “I killed (insurgents)”. Normally the British press would always take a lead with analytical pieces in such situations. One can’t forget how British Press would vigorously write about Prince Harry’s mother Princess Diana, who died in a road accident while she was being chased by photographers.

The stories, appearing in the UK Press are mostly focusing on just one aspect – the unnecessary focus that prince has brought to him which might make him a prime target of radicals. The police, these reports say, are reviewing the security of 28-year-old, famous in army as Captain Wales.

Given the sensitivity of the war in Afghanistan the prince should have limited himself to just speaking about his deployment as a part of his duty and not reacting insensitively and arrogantly because ultimately it is the people dying in the war even if they might be the enemies. Also, given the heavy death of civilians in the war, nobody is sure whether they are killing insurgents or civilians in a raid, so the royal should have reacted in a more wise and sensitive way.

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